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Here's what I found interesting about quitting smoking: For us modern Westerners, morality has evolved from an authoritarian, rule-based system to a consequent
by gabrielroth 18y ago
Here's what I found interesting about quitting smoking:
For us modern Westerners, morality has evolved from an authoritarian, rule-based system to a consequentialist one based on individual judgment of specific cases. An example of the former would be Jewish law: don't eat certain foods; don't wear certain clothes; don't perform certain activities on certain days. Why? Because that's what G-d and the rabbi tell you to do. Or for Catholics: x is a mortal sin, y is a venal sin, tell the priest about it and he'll tell you how many Our Fathers to say to atone. Nowadays most of us think of this stuff as superstition, even the religious among us. We decide for ourselves what's the right thing to do, and we evaluate potential actions largely on their consequences. It's OK to lie to your friend to spare her feelings. It's OK to kill someone in self-defense, or in defense of others. It's OK to steal money to buy medicine for your dying wife. Most of us accept this way of looking at the world, with all its gray areas. Personally, I think this is progress.
When you're quitting smoking, you have to decide -- constantly, every day -- which is more important: your need for a cigarette right this instant, or the damage that will be done to you by that one cigarette. And if you keep thinking about it that way, eventually your craving will grow so powerful that you'll say fuck it and choose the cigarette.
So the only way to stay quit is to adopt a rule: I will not smoke cigarettes because I am not allowed to smoke cigarettes. It feels odd, to decide that certain questions about what you'll do are settled in advance, because we're not used to it. But it worked for me. Good luck.
- froo 18y agoSo the only way to stay quit is to adopt a rule: I will not smoke cigarettes because I am not allowed to smoke cigarettes. I guess that's a lot like the concept of principles and paradigms that Covey advocates in his 7 habits of highly effective people.
- randallsquared 18y agoThis works for other things, too. If you're constantly evaluating whether breaking the rules is likely to pay off this time, you're probably going to break the rules too much, or spend too much time processing about it. Deciding on a set of morals you will not break (except in extremis) frees your time and energy to do things that will pay off, at very little opportunity cost. Further, if you communicate that you've done this, either explicitly by discussion or implicitly by refusing to do things "just this once" that are wrong according to the rules you chose, you'll lower the transaction costs of others interacting with you, and thereby people will trust you and interact with you more. This is called "rep", I think. :)
- Radix 18y agoI find both what ardit and you have said interesting. While I was reading your post I expected you to come to the conclusion that tho only way to stop is to look at things broadly. Within the consequential morality a single cigarette isn't such a bad thing, but that is narrow perspective. So, the better reason is one that reminds you of your negative ideation of smoking, why you want to stop. The shortened life, the wheezing caugh and voice, the need for an air tank and medications for your heart, the cost of it all, including the cigarettes. (I realize I'm best describing heavy smokers.) ...hmm, I think I'm addicted to HN. ps: in the psycological sense that ardit hints at